Hurry Up and WAIT… and Other Miscellaneous Bits

Come on in and have a seat. That’s right. There you go. I have bottled water, coffee, tea… your choice.

I thought it would be fun to just chat for a change. I figured it was time to explain all the crazy blog themes I have been experimenting with and to bring you up to date on my life.

First, the themes. My friend, Ron from Ronovan Writes wrote a great post about our blogs and widgets and all the things we think makes life easier for our readers on our blogs. Make sure to check out this post because it has some valid points worth considering when you are setting up your blog.

Silver is a little crazy!

I know many of you thought I was mad as a hatter for all the theme changes the last few weeks. Well, I am and that has not changed! Actually, I was playing with images and load times for the images. Many of my blog posts are heavy with images so this was something I had to deal with. I had a couple of people say it took a long time for my post to load so they could read it. I did not want to eliminate all the photos for my Writer’s Quote Wednesdays!

I finally settled on the Penscratch theme. I like the way this one loads my header. When I reduced some of the widgets I had, it started to load faster too. In addition, I like the “featured images” part of this theme. It allows you to feature a photo to attract the attention of your readers which is a nice feature.

I also took Ronovan’s advice and reduced the number of blog posts that load on my blog to only five at a time. I think that has made a difference in the quickness of the theme to load. If any of you see differently, please let me know.

Do not be afraid to experiment.

The other thing I did was to eliminate receiving emails for all of your blog posts. Some days I was dealing with 300 emails a day and that is just too much. My phone receives all my email and it was ready to explode! I do not feel so stressed with all the mail since I decided to make another important change.

I have started using the WordPress reader exclusively. That is not exactly true, I do Google your blogs and find your posts that way if you don’t show up in the reader. This whole blogging adventure is meant to be fun but if all I do is go through emails I do not have time for writing and leaving comments. That was a huge concern for me.

Some of my other blogging friends, Hugh, from Hugh’s Views and News, and Judith, from Barrow Blogshave written some excellent posts about finding a happy medium with your blogging and the number of followers and who you follow back. Please read these posts and see if there is a way that you can reduce your blogging stress. (Just click on the bolded names of their blogs to read the articles).

Blogging is fun. Quit making it so much work!

On another note, we had an open house yesterday for our house sale. Only one couple showed up, although all the comments we received were favorable. Patience is something that I am dealing with along with the realization that this is an excellent house and someone will buy it. So, it is “hurry up and wait time.” I do feel a bit more peaceful about the waiting part. After all, everything in the South is slower and there is nothing you can do about it. Good things come to those who wait! J

Thanks for visiting with me and I hope your week is stupendous! If I have not visited you in a while, stop by and let me know. I want to make the people who visit and comment on my posts a priority. You are all important to me. Thanks for taking this great journey with me.

I love the new look blog. It is very clean and fresh-looking, I too have read all of the posts you mentioned regarding keeping blogging under control, I am off this week and am planning on doing a bit of cleaning up as I too can’t cope with so many e- mails! It stresses me out before I have even started writing, knowing I have so much reading to catch up with. As you have all mentioned, blogging is supposed to be fun 🙂

I’m loving the new look you Colleen. The theme looks great and very refreshing. Thank you so much for the mention as well. My recent posts seem to have’ hit the mark’ for quite a few people.

One question for you – you say “I also took Ronovan’s advice and reduced the number of blog posts that load on my blog to only five at a time. I think that has made a difference in the quickness of the theme to load.”

I’m trying to work out what you mean by 5 posts loading at a time. Are you were referring to when people go to your home page as I can only see the one (this post) loading?

Yes. I should have specified that Hugh. I had mine set on ten or more and it was really slow to load. Ronovan said that when he tested it, it was much faster. Some people have so many loading that it takes a few seconds for the images to download. I am image heavy with the recaps of the Writer’s quotes and I like photos.

Okay, thanks for explaining that, Colleen. I’m just hoping my blog does not take ages to load. I usually go for links rather than pictures (as in the blogs I follow), although I do like the odd photo and picture here and there as it makes the whole blog look so nice 🙂

I guess it also comes down to the type of wi-fi you are using. Here in Hove we have “Super-fast Broadband” whereas in Wales we can only current get “standard broadband”. I haven’t really noticed a huge difference and sometimes I think it may be the Phone companies just trying to get more money out of us.

Great post, Colleen. When I started blogging in 2013 I used to read my favourite posts from the reader, but given that I was always writing, or working, or dealing with a crisis, I only checked it once per day. I found that I missed a lot of posts, so gradually began to change the settings to following my favourites through email. It was great at first – it meant I never missed anything. But now, like you, I have 300 emails daily and I’m not getting much else done due to the number of posts – it’s overwhelming. I think I may have to take a leaf out of your book and switch back because, you’re right, blogging is supposed to be fun and I’ve been stressing way to much lately 😀

Colleen, Hugh helped me soooo much! 75 emails a day was just snowing me under!!! I need to turn off the like emails, that would help a lot. Love your new theme, and all the icons. So fun! I <3 blogging too!
Melinda

Hi Colleen. I had some similar thoughts about the new reader, that people in a hurry would just read the Reader post and not go into the blog site. Luckily or not my posts are usually not long so maybe better suited to the Reader Page format. I too get concerned about the loading bit but it takes a lot of time to fiddle around with the design of the blog. I will have to take a peek at Penscratch. Good luck with the move!

I hear you. It is fun to check things out. Some months ago I did a lot of changes, added pages, put more widgets in changed widgets. And I love to change my header due to the season. The reader works best for me too. I am glad I changed that!!! Happy blogging, Colleen 😀

Thanks for all the help with this, Erika. I did not know what to do before the reader. I think many people quit because the email is so intimidating. Hopefully, this will help. My blogging community is too much fun to give up! <3

Posts in email is non-workable for me. The reader although imperfect, works best for me. I love blogging, reading blogs and interacting with the community. Anything you do to keep blogging a joy is the right thing to do! PS- I think your pirate is better looking then Depp…..

I like the new theme. I have been thinking of changing my theme and Penscratch is on my shortlist. Your Facebook widget isn’t loading There’s a big blank spot in the sidebar where it is supposed to be. I think its a glitch. I had the same issue last week and ended up deleting it from my sidebar. I only follow certain blogs via email and the rest through my WordPress reader. The email can be overwhelming. Good luck with selling your house.

You should try this Penscratch theme, Lynn. Thanks for letting me know about the FB widget. I will fiddle with it. The mail was killing me. Thanks for the vote of confidence. I need a kick in the butt today! 😀

The easiest way is when you comment on a blog you really like. There is usually a tick box to ‘subscribe to new posts by email’ under the reply box, as long as you click it before actually posting the reply. 🙂

Meet Author & Poet, Colleen M. Chesebro

Colleen M. Chesebro is an American Novelist & Poet who loves writing paranormal fantasy and magical realism, cross-genre fiction, syllabic poetry, and creative nonfiction.
She loves all things magical, which may mean she is experiencing her second childhood—or not. That part of her life hasn’t been decided yet.
A few years ago, a mystical experience led her to renew her passion for writing poetry and storytelling. Colleen sponsors a Syllabic Poetry Challenge on her blog where participants can learn how to write traditional and current forms of Haiku, Senryu, Haiga, Tanka, Gogyoka, Tanka Prose, Haibun, Cinquain, Etheree, Nonet, and Shadorma poetry. Colleen is a Sister of the Fey, where she pursues a pagan path in her writing.
Colleen won the “Little and Laugh” Flash Fiction Contest sponsored by the Carrot Ranch Literary Community in November 2017. In 2018, she won first place for the “Twisted Travel” category. In 2019, she placed second for the Three Act Story category, with her piece called “The Game.”
Colleen lives in Arizona with her husband. When she is not writing, she is reading. She also loves gardening and crocheting old-fashioned doilies into works of art.

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